A Sensing Platform for Rapid at Home-Test of COVID-19

ABSTRACTSince the first case of COVID-19 was reported in the United States (U.S.) on January 21st, 2020, ithas already been ascertained to affect >900K active cases with >50K deaths. Currently, COVID-19is being diagnosed primarily by three techniques, i.e. reverse-transcription polymerase chainreaction (RT-PCR), gene sequencing and chest computed tomography (CT). However, limitationsof sample collection and transportation, as well as kit performance with inadequate access toadvanced instrumental techniques, often cannot report COVID-19 at its initial presentation leadingto the spread of this infectious disease to a wider community. Moreover, researchers found at leastthree central variants, distinguishable by amino acid changes, among 160 different complete humanSARS-CoV-2 genome sequences. This limits the universal applicability of the currently availablecommercial COVID-19 kits. In this proposal we present a novel approach for screening of activeCOVID-19 cases with a paper based lateral flow assay mediated colorimetric POC biosensor thatwould be able to detect the SARS-CoV-2 gene sequence using specifically designed antisenseoligonucleotides (ASO). This unique approach for selective sensing of SARS-CoV-2 eliminates thepossibility of misinterpretation arisen due to the genomic variants of SARS-CoV-2 which is the mostconcerning limitation of the current COVID-19 sensing kits.